


A Matter of Time

by soufflegirl91



Series: 007 Fest Creations [21]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond - All Media Types
Genre: Bond wants a Bremont MI6 watch, Both the Ms are background characters, Gen, Watches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 08:44:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20043175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soufflegirl91/pseuds/soufflegirl91
Summary: James Bond loves his watches. He tries to convince his superiors to commission a special MI6 Field Agent watch.This is basically a really long headcanon about Bond's watches.





	A Matter of Time

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted to Tumblr
> 
> Take everything you know about James Bond’s military service and throw it out of the window, because I made all of this up. Some of the watches are real, though. I know nothing about watches, but this was inspired by my colleague who is obsessed with them. I’m sure he would enjoy it if I ever told him it existed. 

We all know James Bond loves his watches. Q Branch do their best to fit in with his personal tastes when they make mission-ready timepieces, but their budgets don’t stretch to refitting some of his favourites. Years of repeat orders have given “Universal Exports" fantastic trade discounts with some of the big brands, but the smaller artisan brands are strictly for personal purchase. Which is not to say that MI6 doesn’t have some influence here and there.

Take Bremont, for example. If you ask Q, anyone paying their retail prices for a single watch needs their head looking at, but Bond seems happy to collect them (Q secretly admits that he wants a Bremont Kingsman, if only for the name). Years ago, Bond had discovered that they made specific watches that you could only buy if you met the criteria. The brand may be relatively new, but if you could prove you were there, the special projects went back decades. He’s made a game of collecting as many of those as he can. Bremont didn’t believe he could possibly be eligible for all the watches he was buying, but somehow, the proof just kept coming in. Proof, here, meaning signed approval from his Commanding Officers. It wouldn’t do to send documentary evidence of that one a Royal Navy SBS officer ended up flying a RAF Lightning and managing to get himself ejected from the aircraft. Firstly, because the Forces weren’t supposed to cross over that way, and secondly, because as far as everyone else knew, the Lightning was retired in 1988. Nobody needed to know why it was flying in the 90s.

Being rather a precocious Naval officer, Bond managed to find himself eligible for the RN Fleet Air Arm and the RN Submarine Service watches, but then he hit a snag. They didn’t seem to make one for the Special Boat Service. That just wasn’t good enough. Sure, the special forces arms of the Navy, Air Force and Army were less well known than the Marines, but they were equally if not more elite than they were. Yes, the SBS had previously been part of the Marines, but it was now part of the Navy. He knew very well that the members of the SBS regiment were all highly classified and so he couldn’t wear the watch in public, but still. They deserved their own special watches.

A whisper in ears here and there managed to make their way up to the First Sea Lord (was Bond capitalising on all the Royal and aristocratic lives he had saved over the years? Maybe.), and all of a sudden a discreet communication went out advising current and former SBS servicemen and women that they were eligible for a new, classified, military contract watch, but that it must be ordered through HQ to preserve anonymity. Finally! Now on to the next hurdle.

The former M had just looked at him in that perpetually-unimpressed way she had, when Bond had asked her about the possibility of negotiating a watch for MI6 field agents. Why, she asked, should she waste her time talking over designs for a watch that could never be worn. Bond tried to convince her that the point was to own the watch, not to wear it, but she just told him to go out and design his own if he was so bothered.

When he’d tried to ask the old Q if he would customize one of his personal watches, the Major had refused, citing conflict of interest between work and personal projects. Bond firmly felt that this was a smokescreen for the old boy’s eyesight not being up to the task of putting tiny gadgets inside a watch, but he was polite enough not to push it. He could wait.

It took a few years, but after the dust had settled with the death of M and her crazy scheme to bring down SPECTRE from beyond the grave, after taking Madeleine off to get settled in her new identity, he tried again. Not-new-anymore Q's exploding watch had given him hope.

Q laughed in his face for about 5 minutes. Q branch did not have the time or inclination to set up a secure, anonymous watch

Mallory was more reasonable. He, too, was a connoisseur of the finer things in life, and a proud owner of several military watches. He agreed to put in a word, and to see if they could come to an agreement with the watch company that would be off the books. He was firm in his stance that any current or former field agents wishing to purchase the watch-that-wasn't must use their own money. MI6 was not wasting resources on luxury watches that could never even be worn outside the building.

For all his laughter, Bond’s suggestion had given Q an idea. As part of the field agent watch design, Q convinced M that part of the security assessment should involve Q personally inspecting their manufacturing processes. Just to “make sure that there was no possible way anyone without the right clearance could find out who the watches were for.” And maybe to find out about artisan watch making for himself. He had a side project in mind.

A few months later, a sleek, black box was delivered to Bond at work. Inside, he found the beautiful new field agent watch, complete with all the bells and whistles he wouldn’t be allowed to use. In Bond’s mind, it was well worth the astronomical sale price. M's conditions had been clear – the watch was permitted to be worn only in high security clearance areas of the building. It was not permitted to be seen or worn outside of those areas. If agents wished to take it home, it must he transported securely and kept in a biometric safe in the agent’s home. Q Branch would be verifying the integrity of those safes. Bond thought that was a fair trade. If his next mission briefing was anything to go by, so did Tanner.

As for Q's side project, he wasn’t quite ready to share it, just yet. His adventures in watch production had given him the tools he needed to find a use with those bits of broken tech the double ohs brought back to him like cats with dead mice. Anything that couldn’t be re-used or recycled into new tech found a new home in Q's 00-series of watches. Each double oh agent had their own watch made out of their own scraps. They could take years to assemble, depending on how scrupulous the agent concerned was with bringing back the pieces. 007 had enough for two watches in the time it took to assemble the face of 003’s.

Those tiny little bits of tech had served their purpose, keeping his agents alive just a little bit longer. They would be a fitting retirement gift for the double ohs that lived long enough to ride off into the sunset. For those that didn’t, the least he could do was give their families something to put inside the all-too-often empty casket.


End file.
